Folks, 

Indivisibles all over the country are kicking off their third Week of Action around the first debate between Vice President Joe Biden and Donald Trump. If you’re planning on watching along tonight, you can expect Trump spinning his web of lies, deflecting from the facts, and attacking Biden. It’s going to be a lot on top of an already contentious election season, but instead of rage-tweeting or texting (which is sometimes therapeutic), we’re viewing tonight as a moment to galvanize voters in the next 35 days. 

We’ve created a debate toolkit for you to use tonight while you’re watching -- it’s filled with details on tonight’s debate, great to-dos for when Trump peddles each of his lies, and more information to get the folks in your lives involved. Because if we want to win in November, we’ve got to be all in -- that means not only are we doing everything we can to defeat Trump and his Republican enablers, but we’ve got to get our loved ones involved too (relational organizing at its best).

Here are the key messaging toplines we’ll be watching out for during the debates -- and we encourage you to use these themes in your conversations with friends, family, and neighbors in the days ahead:

• Joe Biden cares about you and your family, Donald Trump does not. Joe will fight for our access to health care, to end this pandemic, and to help the most vulnerable people in our economy.
• Under Trump, COVID-19 has killed over 200,000 Americans and the number continues to rise. Trump and Senate Republicans have failed to support the sick and the unemployed and are instead prioritizing court politics over American lives. They are trying to strip away health care from millions of Americans.
• Our democracy is on the ballot. Joe Biden will protect our votes, our courts, and make it possible for progressive priorities to advance. Donald Trump is an anti-democratic extremist who embraces corruption and rejects accountability.

So if you’re ready to turn your rage into activism during the debate, check out our First Presidential Debate Toolkit (and share it with everyone you know!). Here’s an example of what you’ll find in the toolkit: 

➡️ When Trump mentions anything about election protection, sign up for Protect the Results, and share with two of your closest friends. 

Also, before the debate we’re storming social media to show our support for Biden -- use this form to join us on Twitter from 5 pm to 8 pm ET. Once you’ve tweeted, phonebank with friends or with other Indivisibles before and after the debate by joining any one of the over 280 events on our map. Also, we encourage you to host a virtual debate watch party tonight at 9 pm ET with the Washington Post live stream in one tab and Zoom in another!

With everything going on this week -- from news about Trump’s decades-long tax scam and debt burden to Trump’s nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to tonight’s first presidential debate -- we realize it’s a lot to manage. But this week’s activism gives us hope that if we all do everything we can to motivate our friends and family to vote, hold our elected officials accountable, and demand a better, more inclusive democracy, we’ll have a chance to create real change. Thanks for being in this fight with us.

In solidarity, 
Indivisible Team